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All you need to know about Chandrayaan-4, India's next moon mission
ISRO chief S Somnath described the composition of the Chandrayaan-4 components as five spacecraft modules.
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LVM-3 to carry Chandrayaan-4 components / (Image - Isro)
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is preparing for its upcoming lunar mission, Chandrayaan-4, following the historic success of Chandrayaan-3, that landed on the south pole of the moon in August 2023.
Unlike its predecessor, the Chandrayaan-4 mission will be conducted in two phases. During the first phase, the spacecraft is designed to not only land on the Moon but also bring back lunar regolith—a mixture of rocks and soil— which would be sent from the Moon to India.
While the spacecraft's lander, rover, and propulsion module made up the three primary parts of the Chandrayaan-3, the new spacecraft will have two additional parts, responsible for returning the samples from the Moon to the Earth.
Addressing the National Space Science Symposium, ISRO chief S Somnath described the composition of the Chandrayaan-4 components namely propulsion module, descender module, ascender module, transfer module, and re-entry module.
Chandrayaan-4 to have 5 modules
Chandrayaan-4's propulsion module, like that of Chandrayaan-3, will steer the spacecraft into lunar orbit before disengaging. Descender module, like the Vikram lander on Chandrayaan-3, will land on the moon.
The ascender module will eject from the lander and start its journey back to Earth when the samples have been gathered and stowed. The transfer module will remove the ascender module from the lunar orbit by capturing it. Before the capsule with the samples of rock and soil separates, it will return to Earth.
After returning from the Moon, the re-entry module containing lunar regolith will touch down on Earth.
Somnath said that the mission's five components won't launch simultaneously. The propulsion module, descender module, and ascender module will launch with India's heaviest launch vehicle, LVM-3, while a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) will carry the transfer module and the re-entry module.
Chandrayaan-4 will be the first mission of its kind to use two launch vehicles to accomplish a single task. Building on the achievements of the its predecessor, the upcoming mission seeks to fulfill more challenging goals. India will become just the fourth country to return samples from the lunar surface if Chandrayaan-4 is successful.
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